OTTAWA — The Harper government is moving to shut down House of Commons hearings into the auditor general’s scathing report on the $25-billion F-35 stealth fighter jet project.

The Conservatives moved a motion during a recent closed-door public accounts committee meeting to end the panel’s inquiry into the auditor’s report on the F-35 procurement process.

The government’s manoeuvre, led by Conservative MP Andrew Saxton, comes after about seven hours of hearings and before opposition parties had their chance to grill ministers and Defence Department officials who have criticized Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s findings.

Liberal and NDP members of Parliament on the committee had expected the hearings would continue this week, with the resumption of Parliament following a one-week break. But Saxton introduced a motion during the committee’s last meeting on May 17 to stop calling witnesses and have the panel prepare a report.

“This is outrageous. We can’t shut this committee down,” said Gerry Byrne, a Liberal MP on the public accounts committee. “To shut this committee down is a scandal. It means the government is desperate to hide something.”

Byrne said the committee hasn’t had an opportunity to hear from the two ministers involved in the file, or from a number of other witnesses who could help further pull back the curtain on what has been happening with the F-35.

The committee could reprimand the Liberal MP for disclosing what was discussed during an in-camera meeting, something prohibited under parliamentary rules.

National Defence bureaucrats, along with Defence Minister Peter MacKay and associate minister Julian Fantino, have come under heavy fire since Ferguson released a damning report on the F-35 last month.

Ferguson’s report found senior managers twisted rules, downplayed problems and withheld information about the stealth fighter program — failing to disclose before the last election, for example that the planes would cost taxpayers at least $25 billion — about $10 billion more than what the government promised.

Defence Department officials, led by deputy minister Robert Fonberg, the department’s top civilian, have disputed many of Ferguson’s findings and questioned his conclusions.

Saxton, the parliamentary secretary to Treasury Board president Tony Clement, said Monday in an emailed statement that the committee already has heard three times from the auditor general on his report.

Furthermore, he noted, senior officials from four departments also have testified during two separate meetings detailing the government’s response, while the parliamentary budget officer has also appeared to compare his office’s numbers to those of the government.

“The committee’s mandate is to study the auditor general’s reports. The committee has studied this chapter thoroughly and should now begin writing its report,” Saxton said in the statement.

The Liberals also are upset that committee chairman and NDP MP David Christopherson allowed the Tories to move the motion, when two motions from Byrne to call new witnesses and request documents were still being debated. The committee is scheduled to meet again Tuesday behind closed doors.

NDP House leader Nathan Cullen attacked a government he said is cutting pensions, environmental protection and employment insurance benefits as it dumps money into an F-35 program that is “spiralling out of control.”

“The hearings were helping Canadians understand what the true costs may be. That is obviously a problem for the Conservative government. We are pressing for more hearings, not fewer,” Cullen told reporters Monday.

Senior Parliament Hill reporter for the Ottawa Citizen, politics junkie, wannabe pro golfer and someone who has wordsmithed at newspapers in Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan. I've covered politics at... read more every level, including city hall in Ottawa and Calgary, the Alberta legislature in Edmonton and now back in Ottawa covering the Hill.View author's profile